Holy Family University coach attacks player

http://www.myfoxphilly.com/dpp/news/local_news/slideshow-holy-family-incident-on-tape-022211
Looking at the video, I can't really tell what may have caused the coach to shove the player, then kick him while he was on the floor. Could the shove have been part of a drill?

What the coach did was no big deal, clearly. The "kick" was more like a stutter step, as if he was telling the kid to get up off the ground.

The coach and the player were on GMA in one of the most awkward interviews I've ever seen.

The coach comes across as a bit of a hard-ass basketball coach -- but then again, what college coach isn't? He seems like a deer caught in headlights to a certain degree, like he's stunned at what all's going down. I liked him.

The player comes across as a complete whiny douchebag who lawyered up and sees dollar signs.

If you follow the link and hunt around (man, that website sucks) you can find the interview:

I think the coach is wrong in simply saying "It was an accident" ... there was too much body contact for it to be straight up an accident. But I don't think he meant to shove him that hard. It looked like he kind of flew in there to put a body on that guy and got too close or got a little more aggressive than he meant to. And the "kick" is a joke. He touched the kid on his butt with his foot. That's not a kick and anyone who acts like it is is an idiot.

And I totally agree on the weird interview. It definitely looked like the kid was trolling for money. "I just want to play ball, but now I can't because you injured me. And I can't play for you because I can't respect you." Gag me.

I wonder if the coach would be okay with one of his players proving his aggressiveness by shoving him like he did to the kid. That'd be fine, right?

The coach is a moron. No, it wasn't a kick when the kid was down. But it's not like he was simply showing how to box out and an inadvertent elbow came in. He ran in there like a lunatic - after the kid had grabbed the rebound during the drill, so not sure what the coach was trying to show. Why not belt the kid who didn't grab the board? But I'm sure it made his team tougher.

And no, not all college basketball coaches are hard-asses or borderline psychos. And most of the hard-asses don't go flying in to elbow a player and shove him. But fake tough-guy coaches are often good at that.

I think the coach is wrong in simply saying "It was an accident" ... there was too much body contact for it to be straight up an accident. But I don't think he meant to shove him that hard. It looked like he kind of flew in there to put a body on that guy and got too close or got a little more aggressive than he meant to. And the "kick" is a joke. He touched the kid on his butt with his foot. That's not a kick and anyone who acts like it is is an idiot.

And I totally agree on the weird interview. It definitely looked like the kid was trolling for money. "I just want to play ball, but now I can't because you injured me. And I can't play for you because I can't respect you." Gag me.

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I guess. Hearing words like that so directly is uncomfortable. It makes the coach have to account for them - and a lot of coaches hate accounting for many of their mistakes if they don't have to.

I wonder if the coach would be okay with one of his players proving his aggressiveness by shoving him like he did to the kid. That'd be fine, right?

The coach is a moron. No, it wasn't a kick when the kid was down. But it's not like he was simply showing how to box out and an inadvertent elbow came in. He ran in there like a lunatic - after the kid had grabbed the rebound during the drill, so not sure what the coach was trying to show. Why not belt the kid who didn't grab the board? But I'm sure it made his team tougher.

And no, not all college basketball coaches are hard-asses or borderline psychos. And most of the hard-asses don't go flying in to elbow a player and shove him. But fake tough-guy coaches are often good at that.

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I know a bunch of you here already think wrestlers are psychos, but I can remember a good few times when my high-school wrestling coach was showing me the correct way to do things by demonstrating techniques on me. Quite a few of those techniques hurt like a bitch, and am sure could be construed as "assault" these days. I just chalked it up to normal training - wrestling is supposed to hurt sometimes.

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I don't think wrestlers are psychos (well, not all), but I definitely think there would be different expectations at a wrestling practice. My high school wrestling coach was a legend in the state and even into his 50s was an absolute stud. He'd wrestle them every day and I know he was mean. I'm sure there were times he put a little extra oomph into a hold or move. But I think that's different than this and not just because of the differences between the sports.

A lot of hoops coaches participate with the players too and they run into each other and push each other on defense and box out hard and maybe an inadvertent elbow - or even an elbow with a bit of purpose - is exchanged.

I just don't think that's what happened here. He was obviously pissed and ran toward him and knocked him down, not in the heat of battle, but as the kid stood there, basically defenseless, looking a bit like a dope, but still defenseless. If something like that did happen in a wrestling room - wrestler standing there, not expecting a charge from Hacksaw Jim Duggan - I think it'd be more of an issue than just a coach putting a little extra into a hold during a match against one of his athletes.

I hear ya. Guess I'm just desensitized to it because of my experience with violent practices. If he was that rough in the heat of a serious rebounding drill, it'd be a little different.

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Our wrestling coach was also the phy ed guy. We'd have a "wrestling unit" each year where we'd all have to grapple. He loved pitting his guys - and he always had good teams - against us basketball players or, even better, the weak kids, the nerds. He at least liked hoops guys a bit because we were athletes but he had no problem taking his 171-pound state entrant and pitting him against little four-eyed Benjamin.

A highlight of my phy ed career was pinning one of the guys on the wrestling team. Admittedly, the had a record under .500 and spent most of his time on JV but he had still devoted his life from the age of 5 to the sport. The coach looked disgusted as he slapped the mat.